Role Of Youths To Build Prosperous Nepal

Sarmila Bagale

Youth Vision Nepal 2025 approved by the Government of Nepal in 2015 accepts “making the Nepalese youth strong, competent, competitive and self-reliant, to build a modern, just and affluent Nepal through their meaningful participation and promotion of their leadership capacity.” The meaning of youth is not universal. United Nations has assumed that the people with the age group 15-24 years are only youths. Unlike this, Nepal has its own definition of youth. The National Youth Council Act 2015 has categorised the people of the age group of 16 to 40 years as the youth. As per this definition, young people comprise 40.35 per cent of the total population of Nepal. And again, every year this figure is increasing. In order to make uniformity with the meaning of UN, the Government of Nepal in ‘Youth Vision -2015’ has categorised the youth age group into two age groups of 16 to 24 years and 25 to 40 years.

CreativeYouth force in every country is a dynamic, creative and optimistic force. If they are depressed or the government cannot use their power for the sake of country, the country will go down every year. People of this age group in the political movement of 1951, 1990, a decade long political struggle and people’s movement of 2006 have played phenomenal role to make sequential political changes in Nepal. If we study the scenario at the global level, every developing country across the world can achieve economic progress through the use of their mental and physical power for making quality of life of the people. The fact is that Nepali youths are not getting meaningful space to serve the country. Undesirably, they are compelled to be in a queue to make their passports and fill up the forms to broad the planes for going abroad for employment.According to the data of the Department of Foreign Employment, 341 thousand and 19 young people of this age group had left the country for getting jobs in 2074 BS only. The Ministry of Labor and Employment accepts Nepal has been the first country to receive the highest amount of remittance in the SAARC region. Again, the country is experiencing the worst fact in this sector that huge numbers of Nepalese youths are losing their lives and even have been seriously wounded in the work place. In the past nine years about 5 thousands and 9 hundreds people lost their lives in 28 countries where they had been working.Prolonged political transition and political instability in forming the government had worsened economic scenario and could not attract the financiers to invest in Nepal. Due to insufficient agricultural policy and other remaining factors, Nepali youths are migrating for foreign jobs. As a result, service sector industry like tourism is in slow growth rate. Along with this, in the past the country was passing through various economic risks and vulnerabilities. The massive earthquake that heavily affected the youths and the government could not address the problems of people in time had definitely increased helplessness among the people.In order to make the country prosperous, we have to create opportunity for children and youths in which they can feel free to get quality education, learn skills for making the desired level of changes in their economic and social sectors. If the government of Nepal succeeds to achieve it in time, there is no doubt that the most active, energetic and dynamic group can use their potential to make a flourishing Nepal. For this, education is the most important tool. Quality and equal education for all to make the coming youths more professional and skill oriented ought to be guaranteed by the government. The bitter fact is unless we are using the physical power of youths, no country can go ahead. It is high time to export services than to import them. Unfortunately, we are exporting human resources and receiving remittance that cannot lead the country towards sustainable development.In conclusion, Nepal has to follow the pattern of global youth development indicator to ensure education, health, employment and social security for the youth. Only in this broad concept, Nepal can achieve the desired target of economic development and growth through the meaningful mobilisation of youths and building their leadership in the political sector.

DirectionThe use of their entire physical and mental power in a legitimate way gives a path for development of youth as well as the development of the country. This youngest federal democratic republic received the Constitution in 2015 and the country has got a-two-thirds majority government at the centre and the local level governments are in operation to ensure the rights of the people. Now, it has been good moment to formulate new and sustainable policies and formulate strategies for the development of the country. The time has come for the government of Nepal to use the power of youths that only can show the way of country’s development towards appropriate direction.